To Travel, or Not to Travel?

Twenty years ago, meeting with your important Tokyo-based client would have meant packing several days in advance before embarking on a long, overseas voyage. It would have meant missing time at the office, as well as your family. Not anymore.

Communication technology gives you options

Today, the trip to Tokyo has gotten a lot shorter. In fact, you can now easily get to Japan by walking down the hallway and sitting right in your own conference room—and you can still be home by 6. That’s because more and more businesses are choosing to do away with traditional business trips in favor of working out deals over conference calls.

Conferencing features make online meetings more productive

When you choose to engage in a conference call, you will gain all of the necessary features for conducting a productive real-time meeting, without the headache of having to spend thousands of dollars for an expedited trip across the world.

These features include operator assistance, as well as the ability to break out into smaller groups to discuss important ideas. Just remember to consider your participants’ time zones when you are scheduling the meeting (What’s Your Conferencing Curfew?).

Once the talking is done and it’s time to get down to the real business of signing important contracts or leveraging critical documents, you can simply log into a unified, online meeting. Here, documents can be shared and edited in real-time over a single web interface.

Conference calls are one example of a business practice that is constantly evolving. What was impossible twenty years ago is now effortless, and costs a fraction of the price that traveling to a destination would.

Have you had any success connecting with a client overseas using a conference call? Please tell us in the comments section below.